Arashiyama 嵐山 - Kyoto

On one of the first days in Kyoto we navigated across the town to its western outskirts in a district called Arashiyama. This place has actually more than couple cool places to see, out of which we visited the famous Bamboo Forest and the Tenryū-ji temple (UNESCO) that are basically just next to each other. We had seen so many wonderful pictures of the bamboo groves that it had made our list from the beginning on - and it turned out to be just as wonderful on the spot. The tall and thin bamboo stalks seemed to go on forever. Minus the people around you, the place really was captivating.

The Tenryū-ji, on the other hand, is not only the largest temple in the district, but it belongs to Kyoto's great Zen-temples. The Japanese temples have a certain rawness and simplicity to them, and much of their charm is drawn from nature. The fact that they've used a lot of wood in their constructions and they're often built in the middle of nature brings this earthy feel to these otherwise so grand buildings - they're really like mergers of disciplined details and unrefined natural elements. Just like this temple area with its beautiful architecture and lush gardens.

Because the area consists of mainly nature, I'm sure it would look stunning during the spring's cherry blossoms or contrariwise during the fall foliage. I, for one, would love to see Japan during different seasons including winter...which means we should plan a longer stay...;). Anyway, we ended up having a pleasant few hours stroll and the main street had many places to grab lunch afterwards. Since we were already on the right side of the town, we hopped on a bus and tried to find our way to one of the most celebrated sites in Japan - namely the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji).